| Double chin by
dimpled flank, a hard look at the quick-and-easy.
By Steve Friedman
Before we get into the nitrogen-powered
subcutaneous fat suckers, the legendary Wall Street
guys with tons of money and little time who instead
of working out waddle off for bi-annual liposuction,
and the 30-year-old Philadelphia machinist who had his
penis lengthened once and fattened twice, perhaps it
would be helpful to hear from the 46-year-old producer
who simply looked at his love handles and decided he'd
had enough.
"There was no way I was going to get rid of them,"
he says. "I was going to the gym all the time,
doing side bends, all that shit. Finally it was like
in Raiders of the Lost Ark when that guy's facing the
other guy with the big sword, who's twirling it all
around. Finally the guy just says 'Fuck it,' pulls out
his gun, and blows the sword guy away. That was me.
I finally said 'Fuck it,' and just got the lipo."
It's an attitude that's gaining purchase these days.
More than 100,000 American men went in for some form
of cosmetic surgery in 1999 an almost 50% jump from
1992. Seduced by new technologies and urged on by the
New Economy's emphasis on youth (not to mention the
cultural obsession with the quick fix and a greater
acceptance of male vanity), more and more men are seeking
a leaner torso, smoother brow, and younger looking face
through cosmetic surgery. Liposuction alone has increased
in currency from 6,138 procedures in 1992 to 29,782
in 1999.
"Men want to look less tired, more vital, for the
marketplace," says Dr Gerald Imber, a New York
City plastic surgeon and the author of The youth Corridor
and For Men Only. "They want their skin to fit
and they want to look virile."
But doesn't just about every man wish he looked younger
and more virile? Wouldn't we all be happier if instead
of relentlessly focusing on how we look, we could pay
attention to who we are? Wasn't the world a better place
when the owner of a puffy mug, a bulging belly, and
a receding hairline was a happy man, a satisfied man,
a man of means?
The Face
The traditional face-lift, which involves pulling back
sagging skin and tightening it, has become a mere starting
point. Nowadays most people getting their face improved
will also have work done on their brow, nose, or eyes.
Even those opting for only a face lift, might choose
something called the vertical facelift. Beverly Hills
based Dr. Renato Calabria begins by making two
incisions at the hairline near the ear. Next he makes
incisions on both sides both sides of the mouths interior
and creates tunnels, repositioning the muscles and fat.
The result is not the "stretched" look so
common to plastic surgery, but a fuller, healthier looking
face. You say you don't want a whole new face but just
a smoother forehead? You could get Botox shots, but
the results are temporary, and besides, the same agent
that gets rid of frown lines can also prevent any lines-including
those of surprise, amusement, or sadness - from appearing
. A better way is a brow lift, in which a surgeon removes
the traces of underlying tissue that create the folds.
The greates advance in brow lifts is the invention of
the endoscope, a tiny fiber-optic tube that lets surgeons
peer under the skin, eliminating the need for wide,
hair-damaging slices across the top of the forehead.
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